S. H. M. (Samuel Hawkins Marshall) Byers

Born in Pennsylvania in 1838 and raised in Iowa, he served with the 5th Iowa Infantry during the Civil War. After being captured and held at Camp Sorghum in South Carolina, he wrote the poem that popularized the phrase “Sherman’s March to the Sea.”

His writing stayed closely tied to memory, patriotism, and Iowa identity. In 1867 he wrote “The Song of Iowa,” and in 1911 the Iowa legislature adopted it as the official state song.

Byers later also worked as a diplomat, and he lived a long life that stretched from the antebellum era into the 1930s. He died in 1933, leaving behind a career that connected war experience, public service, and popular verse.